Sexy Paranormal Creatures

If the character is more sexy than terrifying, I would say you are in the territory or romance more than horror

On the other hand, if you're looking for supernatural critter suggestions, you'd want to be in Fantasy/Science Fiction!

A fossegrim! Or a nix! Or even a selkie. kitsunes are kinda hot too. Or a clurachaun.

There's Sucubis (sp) harpy if done right, sirens. Sirens are especially in the horror territory because they seduced you so they could eat you.

lisalulu09 said:

Hmm, yeah. Is there a way of moving this thread to a better 'home'?

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Oh no she didn't (wags finger and tries to bop head around).

If the monsters are not monsters, but sympathetic lead protagonists, then IMHO, it is not horror. The goal of horror is not arousal, but something on the spectrum from dread to all out terror.

Dark Fantasy, Supernatural Romance, whatever you want to call it is very popular, but Sparkly Vampires or Vampires that weep and "Love" humans are not Horror.

rsmccoy said:

Dark Fantasy, Supernatural Romance, whatever you want to call it is very popular, but Sparkly Vampires or Vampires that weep and "Love" humans are not Horror.

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I'm not so sure about that. I've done a bit of crying and then taken my anger out on all the wrong people. I just don't see why a vampire must be emotionless in order to be monstrous. How about serial killers who are terrified of their mothers and go on killing sprees with everyone but her? Coming from human stock it would take time for the human ties to end. That's the part I always got with Anne Rice's vamps. They had roots and multi-faceted personalities. And I guess I've always liked the idea of all that time for study, etc. when dinner was finished. LOL I won't say Rice ever got me looking over my shoulder, but I'm sure it could be done.

The question, in my not so humble opinion, should probably be not what makes the paranormal creature sexy, but what makes it monstrous if you're going to write it as horror (almost anything else would tend to put it squarely in a "romance" sub-genre).

Okay, let's say we have a vampire that also still possesses some human emotion and ability to act on those emotions at least on some level. It (vampires are "its". They are neither male nor female, being monsters, and have little in common with normal humans due to their undead nature except for exterior shape) falls for a human and cannot bring itself to kill the human, but wants to because then it can be with the human forever.

What makes this scenario horrible and what makes the vampire monstrous?

Perhaps the creature, which is already obsessed with the human, keeps the human enthralled with them by feeding on them every few days or so, keeping them enslaved and entranced with the vampire. It feeds only occasionally on its human thrall, obsessed as it is with them, but it is so obsessed with the thrall that it is murderously jealous of anyone or anything that tries to get close to the thrall. Slowly, one by one, the human's family begins to disappear or end up dead, the victims of some hideous "accident" or something.

The trick is to show the vampire as a loving, compassionate creature totally enthralled by its human love interest when in their presence and a murderous killing machine diabolically eliminating the competition (or even any perceived "competition" - the vampire must have its thrall completely and totally to the complete elimination of everyone who even vaguely knows or cares about them)) at every turn when the thrall is absent.

Stephen King's story "Cycle of the Wolf" (the story that inspired the movie "Silver Bullet") had the werewolf being a priest during the rest of the month. He cared for his flock by day during most of the month and then during the three days of the full moon hunted and ate them (actually, I think King could have made this character much more sympathetic and could have made the story into a much longer one, possibly even a book).

Like I said, the trick is to make the character both sympathetic on one hand a monstrous on the other. It's a delicate balancing act, but the readers have to be able to sympathize with the character until it's actually revealed that they are the monster.

Okay, stepping out of the realm of vamps and weres, take Species, for instance. We are dragged into the story on an emotional level. The creature looks human, grows incredibly fast, and is getting tortured by a bunch of asshole scientists that have likely prepared for this using doggies and kitties, etc. Tragic. We start off very sympathetic. But then she grows into third-stage, hormonal-alien-woman determined to mate and reproduce at any cost. EEEK! So I guess I'm going to have to think hard on this and go write my perfect vampire. LOL Lily says we were having a similar discussion waaaay back before she started writing and finished hers. So these conversations do sometimes get results.

Well, damn. I'm writing an incubus/demon romance with a mortal female. I didn't know it was such a crowded market.

Guess I'll scrap that one and go back to the drawing board.

Might I suggest you read the anthology, HOTTER THAN HELL (http://www.amazon.com/Hotter-Than-Hell-Kim-Harrison/dp/0061161292/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1247771923&sr=1-2) to get an idea of some sexy paranormals, and not just the conventional vampires/werewolves?